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Trane gear drive

rover- Yes Trane did make a gear drive centrifugal compressor, however I don't think there are many still left out there. It was CVAA, CVAB and CVAC. All were air cooled chillers with 2 or 3- 8' belt driven fans, a walk in control compartment and the starter was hung on the outside rear of the unit inside a cabinet. It had black box type overload, current and transition timers and was an R-12 system. Tonnage range was 150 - 320 tons. When it was loaded up it was smooth, unloaded it was shake, rattle and roll especially if you were standing inside of it.
-Geo

Once in a while everything falls into place and I am able to move forward, most of the time it just falls all over the place and I can't go anywhere-GEO

Due to different market drivers outside of North America, including refrigerant phase out dates ahead of the Montreal protocol, the Trane Company produced the aircooled Centravac models CVAD (R12/UCP1) through to CVAE (R134a/UCP2) in the 150-340 ton range until it was eventually replaced by the RTAC product. There are still many of these in operation today particularly in Hong Kong and the Middle East.

The water cooled gear drive Centravac offering continues today with the water cooled CVGF (AdaptiView/R134a) as the product offering. Again there are many of the previous water cooled gear drive models CVGA through CVGE in operation today but only outside of the US.

IMHO the directve models are the premium product however the gear drive centrifugals have also proven to be just as reliable.

Like my name implies I luv gear-drive chillers made by Trane. So much so that I have been working on them for over 30 years. I have seen chiller running for 15 years without a rebuild. Trane built the following water cooled machines on R12:- cvga, and the air cooled cvaa, cvac. It was then sent overseas where Trane in France built the cvga from 340 ton through to 900 tons and today most of these machines have been converted to R134a. Frane continued with this product and brought on line the cvge and cvae machines on R134a only. The cvae was replaced by the rtaa and rtac chillers but the water cooled remained in operation. In the late nineties Lacrosse put on the drawing board a new gear drive chiller optimized for R134a with a falling film evaporator call the cvgf which is in production in Lacrosse and China today. Export only. Sorry

Like my name implies I luv gear-drive chillers made by Trane. So much so that I have been working on them for over 30 years. I have seen chiller running for 15 years without a rebuild. Trane built the following water cooled machines on R12:- cvga, and the air cooled cvaa, cvac. It was then sent overseas where Trane in France built the cvga from 340 ton through to 900 tons and today most of these machines have been converted to R134a. Frane continued with this product and brought on line the cvge and cvae machines on R134a only. The cvae was replaced by the rtaa and rtac chillers but the water cooled remained in operation. In the late nineties Lacrosse put on the drawing board a new gear drive chiller optimized for R134a with a falling film evaporator call the cvgf which is in production in Lacrosse and China today. Export only. Sorry

GD-Guru, don't forget the CVGB (CCGB compressor) series. I agree the R12 machines were bullet-proof, have opened compressors after 60,000+hrs for conversion to R134a and found the bearings almost as new. IMHO I don't believe the product was as robust once connverted to R134a.

GD-Guru, don't forget the CVGB (CCGB compressor) series. I agree the R12 machines were bullet-proof, have opened compressors after 60,000+hrs for conversion to R134a and found the bearings almost as new. IMHO I don't believe the product was as robust once connverted to R134a.

So, why don't they sell those things in the States? Also, per the picture, why'd they see fit to leave the motor tail bearing off the larger of the two?

So, why don't they sell those things in the States? Also, per the picture, why'd they see fit to leave the motor tail bearing off the larger of the two?

The earlier gear drive design was sold in the states as an air cooled package, the later gear drives design were sold in markets under accelerated HCFC phase outs. The direct drive design offers a higher efficiency than the current gear drive design.

The low speed bearings are a cantilever design located in the low speed bearing housing, I cannot accurately answer the reasoning behind this design. A question for a Guru who was closeley involved with the design phase!